The work to plan the council’s finances for the coming year is underway. As in previous years we’re asking for your views in a budget consultation.

We already know that in 2019 there will be further financial challenges and some tough decisions to make. We’ve responded well to those challenges so far and in the last decade we’ve achieved efficiency savings of more than £100 million through careful management of our resources. In the current year alone we have saved £6.1 million. The pressures remain however, and in 2019/20 we need to make estimated savings of £4 million - £5 million.

We previously drafted outline proposals in February 2017 to reduce some of the services we provide, while considering charging more for others. These included a number of proposed changes for 2019/20. These budget proposals can be found at:

Demand for the services we provide continues to rise; mainly because of demographic change and the fact more people are living longer. But at the same time the money we get from central government, our grant, is being cut further. By 2020 we’ll get nothing.